- 31-05-2023, Wednesday, at 7:00 pm - Ticketed event
On Wednesday 31st May 2023 we invite you to another concert at the Lentz Villa. The programme consists of popular songs and arias selected from well-known operas, operettas, and musicals, composed, among others, by Fryderyk Chopin, Mieczysław Karłowicz, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Leonard Bernstein, and others.
In the cycle AD ASTRA, we will listen to Magdalena Witczak (soprano) and Rafał Kowalczyk (piano). Our master of ceremonies will be the world-famous tenor Piotr Kusiewicz. We warmly invite you to this event.
Graduate of the violin class at the Henryk Wieniawski Secondary Music School in Łódź and the solo singing class at the Stanisław Moniuszko Academy of Music in Gdańsk (diploma with distinction).
She made her debut in 1999 as Rosina in Gioachino Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. Her major stage roles include Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, Frasquita in Bizet’s Carmen, Oscar in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, Hanna in Moniuszko’s The Haunted Manor, Lucia in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia on an ancient theme, Countess Stasi in Kálmán’s Die Csárdásfürstin, and Mother Abbess in Rodgers’ The Sound of Music.
The artist has performed under the baton of such conductors as Mirosław Jacek Błaszczyk, Tomasz Bugaj, Kai Bumann, Massimiliano Caldi, Sławomir Chrzanowski, José Maria Florêncio Jr, Bogdan Jarmołowicz, Jerzy Katlewicz, Andrzej Knap, Alina Kowalska-Pińczak, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Janusz Przybylski, Wojciech Rajski, Zygmunt Rychert, Jerzy Salwarowski, Ruben Silva, Piotr Sułkowski, Tadeusz Wicherek, Sławomir Wróblewski, and Jan Miłosz Zarzycki.
She took part in the world premiere of Kazimierz Rozbicki’s Missa Festiva, as well as performances of Gedymin Grubba’s Papa in Memoriam for soprano, piano, and sampler, Andrzej Marko’s Miners’ Mass, Marek Czerniewicz’s cantata And the Night Will Surround You Like Brightness , Giedrius Kuprevičius’ The Muse’s Song with Trumpets and Bells for solo soprano and carillon, Andrzej Nikodemowicz’s sacred music, Rafał Kłoczko’s Passion, and Beata Wróblewska’s music drama Sic itur ad Deum. In 2021 she co-created the art-and-research project Poland Painted with Music, whose world premiere took place at Szczecin Philharmonic on 9th December 2021.
Witczak has recorded extensively for the radio, television, and record labels. She can be heard, among others, in the premiere recording of cantatas by Johann Theodor Roemhildt and in Antonio Vivaldi’s solo motet In furore (with Cappella Gedanensis, publ. SOLITON), in Kazimierz Rozbicki’s world premiere of Missa Festiva (with Koszalin Philharmonic Orchestra, ACTE PRÉALABLE), songs from The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein (with the Polish Philharmonic ‘Sinfonia Baltica’), and on the album Adam Mickiewicz Ballad & Romances. Music by Beniamin Baczewski (DUX).
Magdalena Witczak has been awarded a postdoctoral degree in vocal art. She holds the post of professor at Szczecin’s Academy of Art.Kowalczyk simultaneously studied the piano, French horn, and harp. He is a graduate of the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz (piano class of Tatiana Shebanova and Jarosław Drzewiecki) as well as the Chopin University of Music in Warsaw (horn class of Aleksander Szebesczyk).
His numerous accolades awarded in music competitions and festivals include the 3rd prize in the Steinway Klavierspiel Wettbewerb in Hamburg (2000), the 4th prize in the 8th Silesian Piano Competition in Zabrze (2007), the 2nd prize in the 6th Brass Instruments Festival in Mielec (2007), and the Golden Parnassus award of the International Piano Forum ‘Bieszczady without Borders’.
Rafał Kowalczyk plays the horm at Szczecin’s Castle Opera and works as lecturer / piano accompanist at that city’s Academy of Art. As pianist and horn player, he has performed with such orchestras as the Polish Sinfonia Iuventus, Płock Symphony, Orchestra of the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, philharmonic orchestras in Szczecin (Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic), Częstochowa (Bronisław Huberman Philharmonic), Gorzów, Koszalin (Stanisław Moniuszko Philharmonic), and Poznań (Tadeusz Szeligowski Philharmonic).Kusiewicz studied piano with Prof. Zbigniew Śliwiński and solo singing with Prof. Jerzy Szymański at the Gdańsk Academy of Music, graduating with an honours degree. He has performed, among others, at the Warsaw Chamber Opera, Warsaw’s Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, the Grand Theatre in Łódź, opera houses in Cracow, Wrocław, and Gdańsk (Baltic Opera) as well as all of Poland’s philharmonic halls. He has also been applauded abroad in, among others, Berlin, Frankfurt-am-Main (Alte Oper), Cologne, Leipzig (Gewandhaus), London (Royal Festival Hall), Munich, New York (Carnegie Hall), Paris (Théâtre des Champs Élysées), and Vienna (Musikverein).
His repertoire comprises more than 140 large-scale oratorio-type works and 20 operatic parts, as well as song cycles. He was the first Polish performer of Witold Lutosławski’s Paroles tissées, which he recorded with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR) under Antoni Wit for the international NAXOS label (Gramophone monthly’s Best Buy). Likewise under Wit’s baton and for the same label, he recorded Krzysztof Penderecki Utrenja with Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir (a 2010 Grammy nomination). The DUX release of Gustav Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (winner of the Prix de l'Academie du Disque Lyrique) features Piotr Kusiewicz, Jadwiga Rappé, and the Great Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio under Michael Zilm.
Kusiewicz’s worldwide tour in 1996-2002, promoting a production of Karol Szymanowski’s King Roger under Charles Dutoit, with performances in the world’s most prestigious concert halls (including in Montreal, New York, Paris, and Tokyo), was one of the highlights of the Polish tenor’s career. His discography comprises forty CDs and four DVDs.
Piotr Kusiewicz is the head of the Chair of Vocalism at Gdańsk Academy of Music. He also teaches a singing class at the Academy of Art in Szczecin.
In March 2008 Pope Benedict XVI presented Kusiewicz with the ‘Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice’, the highest decoration for distinguished service to the Catholic Church by lay people. In 2016, the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage awarded him the Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis.
